Beijing (XNA) Jul 26, 2022
China's Tianwen-1 probe beamed back high-resolution images of Mars' natural satellite Phobos on Saturday, marking the second anniversary of the launch. Phobos and Deimos are two natural satellites of the red planet. Phobos is the larger one with an irregular shape with no atmosphere and the closest satellite to the main star in the solar system. The Tianwen-1 operation team seized th

Washington DC (UPI) Jul 25, 2021
China has successfully launched a laboratory to its space station orbiting Earth, the Asian nation's space agency said. The 23-ton Wentian lab module was launched aboard the Long March 5B rocket from China's Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan Province at 2:22 p.m. Sunday and docked to the core module of the Tiangong Space Station early Monday, the China Manned Space Agency said.

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 25, 2022
Fifty years ago, U.S. scientists launched a satellite that dramatically changed how we see the world. It captured images of Earth's surface in minute detail, showing how wildfires burned landscapes, how farms erased forests, and many other ways humans were changing the face of the planet. The first satellite in the Landsat series launched on July 23, 1972. Eight others followed, providing

Paris, France (SPX) Jul 26, 2022
Following recent market rumors, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) confirms that it has engaged in discussions with its co-shareholders in OneWeb regarding a potential all-share combination to create a global leader in Connectivity with complementary GEO/LEO activities. The combined entity would be the first multi-orbit satellite operator offering integrated GEO and LEO solution

Beijing (Sputnik) Jul 21, 2022
Last month, the US Space Force (USSF) launched a new intelligence center and US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines called space "a warfighting domain." The military branch was launched in 2019 as Washington began to fret it was losing its half-century of dominance in US orbit. The Chinese government has denounced the United States' militarization of space, calling on Washington

Denver CO (SPX) Jul 26, 2022
Today, Space For Humanity (S4H), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, announced its selection committee has chosen Sara Sabry to become the organization's second sponsored Citizen Astronaut. Sara will become the first Egyptian to fly to space when she flies aboard Blue Origin's NS-22 flight. Sara, 29, is an Egyptian mechanical and biomedical engineer and founder of Deep Space Initiative (DS

Houston TX (SPX) Jul 26, 2022
Planetary scientists from Rice University, NASA's Johnson Space Center and the California Institute of Technology have an answer to a mystery that's puzzled the Mars research community since NASA's Curiosity rover discovered a mineral called tridymite in Gale Crater in 2016. Tridymite is a high-temperature, low-pressure form of quartz that is extremely rare on Earth, and it wasn't immediat

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 25, 2022
Some planning days are more complicated than others, not because Mars throws us a curve ball, that happens, too, as regular readers of this blog will know. No, sometimes it's just plain old computer issues here on Earth that make things complicated. Today was such a day, and some of our personal computers hadn't properly updated one of the tools, but when we found out it was too late to diagnose

San Francisco CA (SPX) Jul 25, 2022
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, has announced a new contract with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The organization is leveraging Planet's PlanetScope and SkySat products to evaluate oil spills, track marine debris, detect vessels, and identify large marine mammals like whales. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan caused

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 25, 2022
Water is life, but for all its importance, humanity has a surprisingly limited view of Earth's freshwater bodies. Researchers have reliable water level measurements for only a few thousand lakes around the world, and little to no data on some of the planet's important river systems. The upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite will fill that enormous gap. By helping to provid